DEALING WITH UNFAMILIAR WORDS




Dealing with unfamiliar words is a common challenge, especially when reading in a second language, but it’s also a great opportunity to expand vocabulary and improve comprehension. Here are a few strategies to handle unfamiliar words effectively:

1. Using Context Clues

Context clues are hints found within the surrounding sentences that help you infer the meaning of an unfamiliar word. The context may provide examples, explanations, or contrasting ideas that can guide your understanding.

Example:

“The arid landscape stretched for miles, with no signs of water or vegetation. It was a harsh, dry environment.”

• Unfamiliar word: Arid

• Context clue: “No signs of water or vegetation” and “dry” suggest that arid means extremely dry or lacking in moisture.


2. Breaking the Word Down

You can often figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words by breaking them down into their parts (prefix, root, and suffix). Understanding the components of a word can provide insight into its meaning.

Example:

• Unfamiliar word: Biodiversity

• Breakdown:

• Bio- (life)

• Diversity (variety)

• So, biodiversity means the variety of life in a particular area.


3. Using a Dictionary or Translation Tool

If context clues and word parts don’t help, using a dictionary or an online translation tool is a direct way to understand unfamiliar words. For English learners, bilingual dictionaries can offer translations that make sense in your native language.

Example:

• Unfamiliar word: Obsolete

• You look it up and find that it means “no longer in use or outdated.”


4. Learning Word Families

Familiarizing yourself with word families can help you understand a new word by connecting it to words you already know. Words with the same root often share similar meanings.

Example:

• If you know the word act, then you might recognize that actor (a person who acts), action (the process of doing something), and active (involved in action) are all related in meaning.


5. Skipping and Returning

Sometimes, you can temporarily skip over unfamiliar words and continue reading to get the overall idea of the text. After finishing the paragraph or section, you can return to the unfamiliar word with a better understanding of its role in the context.

Example of Using Context Clues

Sentence: “The student was elated when she found out she had passed the exam.”

• Unfamiliar word: Elated

• Context clues: The phrase “passed the exam” is positive, suggesting that elated must mean very happy or excited.

Dealing with unfamiliar words using these strategies will not only help you understand texts better but also gradually expand your vocabulary in a natural way.

Komentar

Posting Komentar

Postingan populer dari blog ini

PREVIEWING

Gambar
      Previewing   Previewing is a reading technique that involves understanding what is in a particular work without reading the contents of the text. Previewing simply means looking over your reading material in order to become familiar with its content before you actually begin reading it. In this way, you begin thinking about any experiences you may have had with the subject. By previewing you can provide a general overview and find parts that need to be read, as well as parts that don't. Previewing a text as a reading strategy has the goal of providing you with a quick overview, a rough idea of what you should expect from the book or text at hand, and a foundation for the upcoming learning curve. By previewing a text as a reading strategy, you familiarize yourself with the content, roughly analyzing what you already know about the subject. Previewing a text is similar to watching a movie preview. Think of previewing a text as similar to...
Baca selengkapnya

SKIMMING

Gambar
  Skimming is a strategic, selective reading method in which you focus on the main ideas of a text. When skimming, deliberately skip text that provides details, stories, data, or other elaboration. Instead of closely reading every word, focus on the introduction, chapter summaries, first and last sentences of paragraphs, bold words, and text features. Skimming is extracting the essence of the author’s main messages rather than the finer points. Skimming is the other technique of fast reading. Skimming is the act of glancing through a text for gathering a basic idea about that text. For instance, if you want to read an interesting article on the newspaper and you do not have enough time to read more than one article, you will skim through most of the article to decide exactly which article you want to read. Skimming will also save a great amount of your valuable time if you know how to skim a text efficiently.  Purposes of Skimming To see what is in the news on a website o...
Baca selengkapnya

USING CONTEXT CLUES

Gambar
Using context clues means figuring out the meaning of an unfamiliar word by examining the words and sentences around it. Context clues help you make an educated guess about the word’s meaning based on how it is used within the text. This is a valuable skill because it allows you to understand new words without always having to look them up in a dictionary. There are several types of context clues you can use: 1. Definition or Explanation Clues Sometimes the meaning of the word is directly explained in the sentence or the following sentence. Example: “The city was placed under quarantine, which means that no one could enter or leave until the virus was contained.” • The phrase “which means that no one could enter or leave” explains the meaning of “quarantine.” 2. Synonym Clues The text may use a synonym, a word with a similar meaning, to help clarify the unfamiliar word. Example: “She was known for her benevolence, or kindness, toward the poor in her community.” • The word “kind...
Baca selengkapnya